New circuit, same result?
Formula 1 makes its second trip to North America, landing at the long-tenured Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Île Notre Dame in the St. Lawrence River in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, with another likely Max Verstappen win on tap. With Red Bull’s RB-19 the dominant cream of the 2023 crop, oddsmakers have noticed and have various betting options other than Max Verstappen to win everything.
BangtheBook has searched the alternative betting lines to find our favored bets that will likely pay out at this weekend’s Grand Prix du Canada.
Red Bull Versus the World
Max Verstappen’s current race form in the RB-19 is something to marvel at. Hate the lack of competition if you must, but it’s hard not to marvel at the ease at which Verstappen navigates his RB-19 around a circuit and shoots directly to the top of the timing charts on his first flying lap of any session.
The soon-to-be three-time Drivers’ World Champion Verstappen has won four of the six races this season, winning three by more than 5 seconds. With this info, we have two picks for you from BetOnline: Verstappen (-300) over the field (+240) and to take the over on the winning margin being 5 seconds or more (-280).
The Battle of the Bulls – Verstappen vs Pérez
Red Bull has won every race this season and might win every race unless something goes terribly wrong for Verstappen.
There are two Battle of the Bulls betting lines we’re focusing on for qualifying and the Grand Prix. In the qualifying battle, Verstappen holds a 5-2 advantage over Pérez. However, Pérez did out-qualify Verstappen for the Azerbaijan GP Sprint Race on Pérez’s best weekend in Formula 1.
We’re taking Verstappen (-375) to out-qualify Pérez (+275), who has had awful qualifying performances in his last two races.
Verstappen holds a 5-2 Grand Prix advantage in the battle of the Bulls and is our pick to defeat Pérez in the head-to-head Grand Prix battle, with both drivers listed at the same odds from the qualifying head-to-head betting line.
The Best Head-To-Head Betting Options
Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (-180) holds a 5-2 qualifying edge over Nick de Vries (+150) this season. We’re taking Tsunoda to out-qualify de Vries. Tsunoda (-240) holds a 6-1 advantage in the head-to-head battle over de Vries (+190) and is our pick to win the Alpha Tauri battle.
Staying with backmarker head-to-head battles, we’re taking Nock Hülkenberg (-155) to out-qualify Kevin Magnussen (+125), holding a 5-2 qualifying advantage. Hülkenburg has consistently been very good in qualifying, often putting the VF-23 into Q2 or Q3 clutch last-ditch flying laps.
For a couple of bank-the-win type picks, take Williams’ Alexander Albon at -900 in qualifying and -400 in the Grand Prix to outperform rookie teammate Logan Sargeant. Albon holds a 7-0 qualifying edge and a 5-2 Grand Prix advantage, although both times Sargeant out-finished Albon, it was due to retirements.
Fernando Alonso (-450) holds a 6-1 qualifying advantage over Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll (+325). Alonso (-325) has out-finished Stroll (+250) in all seven Grand Prix this season.
However, has the Mercedes W-14 bridged the gap to Aston Martin with its new upgrades? One-time teammates Alonso (-120) and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (-110) are currently third and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with Alonso out-finishing Hamilton 5-2. However, we like the new look W-14 a lot, and we’re taking Hamilton to out-finish Alonso in Montréal.
